We will truly have more peaceful relationships when we stop telling others how to live and start practicing love and forgiveness.
From the perspective of Love and Spirit, forgiveness is the willingness to let go of the hurtful past. It is the decision to no longer suffer, to heal your heart and soul. It is the choice to no longer find value in hatred or anger. And it is letting go of the desire to hurt others or ourselves because of something that is already in the past. It is the willingness to open our eyes to the light in other people rather than to judge or condemn them.
To forgive is to feel the compassion, gentleness, tenderness, and caring that is always within our hearts, no matter how the world may seem at the moment. Forgiveness is the way to a place of inner peace and happiness, the way to our soul. That place of peace is always available to us, always ready to welcome us in. If, for the moment, we don’t see the welcome sign, it is because it is hidden by our own attachment to anger.
Somehow, there is a part of us that believes we can get the peace of mind we seek by holding on to hatred, or anger, or pain. There’s a part which says that we must protect ourselves and that we can achieve happiness and peace of mind by being attached to hatred and seeking revenge. There’s a part of us that says we must withdraw and withhold our love and our joy because we have been hurt in the past.
We can look upon forgiveness as a journey across an imaginary bridge from a world where we are always recycling our anger to a place of peace. That journey takes us into our own spiritual essence and the heart of God. It takes us into a new world of expanding, unconditional love.
Through forgiveness, we receive all that our hearts could ever want. We are released from our fear, anger, and pain to experience oneness with each other and our spiritual Source.
Forgiveness is the way out of darkness and into the light. It is our function here on earth, allowing us to recognize ourselves as the light of the world. It allows us to escape the shadow of the past, whether that shadow is our own or another person’s.
Forgiveness can free us from the imprisonment of fear and anger that we have imposed on our minds. It releases us from our need and hope to change the past. When we forgive, our wounds of past grievances are cleansed and healed. Suddenly we experience the reality of God’s love. In that reality, there is only love, nothing else. In that reality, there is never anything to forgive.
In A Course in Miracles, there is a beautiful passage about forgiveness. I quote it here because it describes the benefits that can be ours through forgiveness:
“FORGIVENESS OFFERS EVERYTHING THAT I WANT”
What could you want that forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of pure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?
All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack. And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more.*
(FROM LESSON 122)
Forgiveness is letting go of all hopes for a better past.
The power of love and forgiveness in our lives can produce miracles.*
The key word in learning to forgive is the willingness to forgive.*